Official Luthiers Forum!

Who carries a good supply of purflings? I'm looking at different options for a mahogany guitar. The top guitar in the first pic below has an interesting purfling scheme I like. Anyone have a souce for this style purfling? How about the 30s style Martin purfling shown in the second picture?

Thanks!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Hi Darryl, My woodcraft store carries the one in your second picture and many others. But i usually make my own, so i can't help much there. If you have a woodcraft near by , you might check there.

Gurian may have what you want but you may have to order a fair amount.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

i just started making my own and i love it. It's relaxing and fun. sort of a puzzle too. I'm having some trouble with rosette tiles, but herringbone is a pretty straightforward process.

I see some guys cutting the herringbone 45's on a bandsaw but the little tiles seem to fly off when i do it. i built a little miter box and use a japanese dozuki. takes longer but i get less broken pieces and i don't have to scrounge around on the floor looking for rogue tiles.

b

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brendan 3.0 new and improved, with better interpersonal subroutines

guitarwood.ca has a nice collection of intersting purf lines .. made in Italy (or so he says)

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Hey Darryl,

This place has a good assortment of various marquetry strips. I am not sure if they have exactly what you are looking for, but they have a very large selection.

Tony (Yes, the same one Darryl!)

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

The first one is Bourgeois designed and made by Gurian. I don't know for the others but I wouldn't be surprised if they were made by http://www.karin-rost.com/. Relatively easy to make your own though.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Ok Tony........where would "This place" be?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I have to wonder if that last picture is inspired by the Larsons. I made this:

I sure thought I had a link to a source with a lot of pre-made purflings including one very similar to the Burgeos purfling I like above. I haven't yet found it. Would like to find a place where I can purchase just what I want for a particular guitar as opposed to building or having something custom made and purchase an entire log. As Haans has pointed out, you can tie up a bit of money in a log glue up.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

A very true statement. I put a little over $200 into the log I built. And it involves a serious learning curve. Seems to be a lot of tribal knowledge involved. On the other hand, If you get good at it, and it is a popular type, you can always sell it and recover your investment and THEN some. Also, I had a good time figuring it out. If you do find a source, let us know about it. The stuff at various well known vendors is not all that diverse. It's also not cheap.

Mike

Not sure if you are building yours up with those colored sticks. I did mine with maple veneer layers (0.3 & 0.6 mm thickness, dyed). Before I cut a slice off, I glue the thinnest black fiber (.01") I can get to one side (actually, the color depends on your final inlay scheme). Then, I glue the same material on the other side. Thin is key! Then I lay it flat on the bandsaw and slice it into purfling strips. The fiber keeps it from disintegrating. I'm still evolving my technique. Proxxon saws come to mind. Now, this fiber will greatly assist when you go to heat bending. If it is too thick, it will not bend properly and the fiber will buckle under compression. I have also have done a few passes through the drum sander (not the bar, or the strips, but the slice) to further thin the fiber. I do it supported on an MDF support base. A little spray glue.

If you are doing a circular blank built with sticks (donut), then coat the outside edge in some kind of thin fiber. That will be at the bottom of the rosette channel. If you are building tiles from a stick based bar, apply tape to the outside edge before bandsawing. Maybe a clear, flexible tape. The cut side is at the bottom of the channel. After glue up, remove the tape.

Mike

www.touchstonetonewoods.co.uk
Do a search-their in London & have many purfs.



Mc

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Mike Collins

Thanks Mike, good link.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

You cant read minds? I have to post the link?
YEah...umm...sorry about that. Here you go:
http://inlays.com/wood_inlay_strips.asp

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Almost all of what they have Tony (from NYC) is really whats referred to as banding .. its not purfling .. its too thin (1/32), and most is way to wide to ever be able to bend around a guitar's shape ... but still very interesting. Lee Valley bought a warehouse of 80-100 year old stuff from this defunct place in France about 10-12 years ago .... the quality was fantastic, but pretty much useless to guitar makers ... its really for flat, straight, edging inlay on furniture ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Is this the correct zipper backstrip for a herringbone?
http://inlays.com/item.asp?PID=1132

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Weeeeell, kind of hard to say. I bet he is not willing to sell it. I won't sell mine either. This stuff is SO fragile. And if handled improperly, it turns into flakes. For me, this is no problem... lots more where it came from. And as I use it, I get better with it. Any buyer would want a warranty, and I would not want to go there. I bought some pretty standard stuff from LMI or Stew-Mac. Ruined it. And this was for a backstrip... no bending involved. And no, I did not ask for a replacement. It was my fault. But that kind of mistake can get expensive quickly!

The ONLY way I would sell it is as a log. And no warranty. Seeing as I have $200 in material, my guess at a fair price would be $350. Hey, its handmade. And if you use it all efficiently, you will come out ahead in cost. But my guess is NO one would pay me $400 for a log.

Mike

DISCLAIMER: I did not post that info to sell this stuff. Just to give an idea of what is involved.

Gosh, why not ask him?
Well, he's already sold a few sets ...
Who know how many more he will sell...

Depends...